Shakespearean Lady
by futuremrsbates99
Summary: Third in 'Accepted Invitation' Series. Variant of 'The Shakespeare Code' with Donna, haven't finished it yet but I want it to make further progressions in to the Doctor/Donna relationship...reviews and favourites are appreciated.
1. On Arrival

Donna POV

He was still cooking breakfast when I walked in, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and sat down at the table. After a couple of minutes, he joined me at the table with a fry-up in each hand, he passed one to me and we began to eat.

I was just finished up my eggs as I asked him what our plans for the day were, hoping it would be something exciting, though it always ended up that way wherever we went. After finishing off his breakfast, he looked up at me with thoughtful eyes.

"Well, I fancy a trip in to the past, haven't been backwards in a while actually. But you can choose when, what's your favourite era in history, and remember we have the psychic paper so we can meet just about anyone you want to." He said it with such excitement and looked at me like a child waiting to go on a day trip to the beach, but I was trying to think of what I wanted to see, then it came to me.

"Oh! I know! I love Shakespeare, could we meet him? Or at least go and see one of his plays?" A smile spread across the Doctor's face as he hopped up and began to do the dishes cheerfully.

"I'm so excited Donna, he's one of the few famous people in history I haven't met. Today is going to be brilliant, wait. What year do you want to go, roughly I mean because we don't want to change history or anything?" _Now here's an easy question to answer. _I thought.

"Can we go around the debut of Much Ado About Nothing? That's my favourite one of his plays and I'd love to see it!" I asked, hoping he would say yes and when he agreed, I went to change, this was an opportunity to raid the wardrobe, I could dress up like a lady. I hurried off towards the wardrobe and started looking through all of the outfits the Doctor had over the years, trying on dress after dress. Eventually I found the perfect one - an Elizabethan-era gown that was blue and covered in lace - and tried it on, it looked as good on me as it had on the hanger and I was delighted with it.

Doctor POV

I was just setting the controls to the right date when she walked in to the control room, she always looked lovely but this was a whole new level, she looked beautiful! Donna was stood there wearing a gown that he had last seen on Romana, a very long time ago, and it hadn't even looked this good on her.

"How do I look?" She asked genuinely, doubting she looked as brilliant as she did.

"You look gorgeous! And with hair like that you could start the Queen Vic trend a few hundred years early." I stated honestly, she's curled her hair and it hung over her shoulders and contrasted with the dress to make the locks look even brighter than usual. She walked towards me and I couldn't help but smile at her, the TARDIS shook vigorously sideways - I'd almost forgotten we were in flight - and Donna almost fell over, I ran to catch her before she lost her balance completely. And with an almighty thud, the TARDIS landed, sending us both of balance, I had to grab on to the console to stay upright. "Outside that door, it's 1598 and Shakespeare has just announced his new play 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Let's go!"

As she stepped out of the TARDIS and into the cobbled street of Elizabethan London, she gasped and fell back against the blue box in shock. She looked back at me and smiled, reaching out her hand to mine, I grabbed on to it and we started down the street in what I hoped was the right direction. We watched the people going about their daily business and continued through the busy town. Then the globe theatre came in to view and Donna practically squealed in excitement, I couldn't help but giggle at her.

"There it is, the globe theatre, though technically it's not a globe it's a tetra-decagon, containing the man himself." She squeezed my hand tighter in anticipation as we continued walking up the street.

When we got there we headed straight inside, psychic paper on hand, when I saw the date on the flyer I couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Donna...I'm really sorry but I might have got here a bit late, we're seeing Love's Labours Lost...not Much Ado About Nothing. I'm sorry Donna, I know you really wanted to see it and we can always go back to the TARDIS and try and get the date right but we might as well stick around and watch this first, yeah?" I hoped she wouldn't mind too much, even though I felt really bad, I still wanted it to be a nice day for the both of us.

"I don't mind really, I love all of Shakespeare's plays! We don't have to come back again, I'd love to see this one just as much. Now let's get inside ey?" She said, I was pleased to see she was still in a good mood about it anyway.

After seeing the play, Donna still looked really happy to be there, and I did too. Shakespeare made his appearance and announced that the sequel would be performed tomorrow night - the non-existent sequel - so we were going to be sticking around. _Why can't I go anywhere without something back happening? _I thought.


	2. Shakespeare and Sleep

Donna POV

After the Doctor had said we were going to have to stay around for a while to find out what Love's Labours Won was all about, I was hoping that he'd say we could go back to the TARDIS, but he said that we were going to have to stay in town to observe over night. We arrived at an inn, supposedly the one in which Shakespeare was staying, and went inside to meet the man himself.

When we arrived and the Doctor introduced himself we almost got kicked out, before the Bard saw me and seemed to like what he saw. The Doctor flashed him the psychic paper quickly and introduced me as his companion.

"Interesting, that piece of paper, it's blank." Shakespeare said, and I looked at the Doctor confusedly, wondering how that was possible.

"Doctor, you said that the psychic could fool anyone, so how can he tell that?" I asked, not even attempting to tackle Elizabethan English, it was too difficult to understand let alone speak.

"Psychic. Never heard that before and words are my trade. Who are you and more to the point who is your fair red-headed lady?" I almost took offence but managed to hold my tongue, understanding the way of the era. Before the conversation could be continued we were interrupted by a gentleman who seemed displeased with Shakespeare's sudden announcement of a new play, I wasn't listening properly to what was being said anyway.

After he had left, we continued to speak with the gentleman about his new play, only to be interrupted a scream from outside, and being the nosey people we are, we had to go on and check it out. We ran downstairs to find the man who had come in earlier, staggering along, choking up water, the Doctor made his way through and I said I would help - not that there was much to be done for the man - he had seemingly drowned, not that the Doctor told them that in case they thought it was witchcraft - which incidentally it was.

We bid Shakespeare goodnight, and found the room we had been given - to share - for the night. After finding it I headed straight in to see what we had to work with, I was soon followed by the Doctor who was feeling much more optimistic than I about the whole situation. We'd been given a single bed, and there were two of us, it was vain but that was the most pressing issue in my mind.

Doctor POV

"So, who's going where? There's one bed, there's two of us, any ideas?" She asked, nose turned up when she saw the state of herself in the mirror, though I thought she looked just as lovely as ever.

"We'll manage, it's alright." I said as I sat down on the bed, it flopped under the weight of me and I could tell it was old. I reached in to my pocket and pulled out a toothbrush, she shook her head in disbelief. "It's Venetian spearmint, figured you might need it unless you brought your own." I said mockingly and she narrowed my eyes at me and I could tell she was insulting me in her head._  
_

"Fine. But no funny business if you want to keep both your legs spaceman!" She said teasingly as she sat down on the edge of the bed where I was taking up the whole thing. "Budge up then, I ain't some skinny little thing like you know!" I laughed at that and shifted further to the side, making enough room for her to lie beside me, the candles was still burning at either side of us.

"So witchcraft, tell me it's not real? It's all a bit Harry Potter." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and smirked.

"Wait til' you read book seven, I cried." She smiled at me and I looked back at her, still pre-occupied with wondering what could have caused it. "Witchcraft isn't real, but there are lots of things that can appear to be like it, too many variations to figure out which yet. I just can't tell what it is yet, it's staring me in the face Donna, but I can't tell what it is. Rose would know, she'd figure it out but hey-ho. It's up to us now Donna, now's the time for you to prove how brilliant you are, ey?" I said jokingly, trying to get away from the fact I'd mentioned Rose while lying in bed with someone else, I'd realized immediately and regretted it.

"Yeah well you're on your own there mate, you're the one who comes up with the brilliant ideas, not me! I'm off to sleep now so, night." She turned to blow out the candle but still lied down facing inwards, not that I minded. It wasn't likely I'd sleep much anyway, I never did anymore so I'd get no more than an hour.

"Yeah, goodnight Donna." I said and I must of fallen asleep soon after that because I had no recollection of the night.


	3. Bedlam

Donna POV

When I woke I could still hear the Doctor's heavy breathing and assumed he was still asleep, during my slumber I had moved so that I was now practically lying on top of him - but it wasn't completely unpleasant - with my arm strewn over his waist. His hand was resting in my hair and his head was resting on top of mine, I didn't feel any need to move, I could just pretend to be asleep when he woke then he could move.

I stayed lying like that for another half-hour or so when I felt him stir beside me, I closed my eyes and waited to see what he did. Once he'd woken completely, he kissed the top of my head gently and then began to try and wake me softly.

"Donna, sweetheart we're going to have to get up." He whispered beside my ear, his cool breath felt like ice against the skin there. "No lie-ins in 16th century, are you awake now?" I gave him a small nod and took the opportunity to lean in to chest, nuzzling my nose there faux-sleepily. Raising up on one elbow, I got up and looked at him, he did look adorable with bed hair admittedly.

"Morning, sorry about _this._" I said, indicating towards both our bodies and their apparent entanglement.

"S'alright, happens to the best of us, no harm done." He smiled at me - still not moving his hand from the back of my head - and neither of us made a move to get up just yet. I was enjoying this a little more than was good for me, _could I be falling for the one man I said I wouldn't fall for?_ I wondered.

When we eventually got up, it turned out that a woman had been killed during the night, somehow I had managed to sleep through but the Doctor had risen to see what was happening then come back to bed. The Doctor went to see Shakespeare again while I went and tried to clean myself up in the washroom, not that much could be done to help, and then joined the two men in the study.

After a short conversation about the 'witch' which had been sighted, we headed over to the globe, the Doctor thought he could figure something out there. He was determined it was something to do with the fourteen sides of the theatre so we explored every possibility, then decided the only way we were going to get any answers was go to Bedlam and speak to Peter Street - the architect - about the globe's design.

Doctor POV

After we arrived at Bedlam, we were shown to the cell of Peter Street, Donna was still disgusted at the state of the place, she hadn't come to terms with all the concepts of the age. We were shown in to his cell and I told the guard to get out so we could speak with him alone. I leant down to him, and tried to penetrate his mind but he was resisting.

"Peter, I'm the Doctor." He stared at me. "Go in to the past, one year ago, let your mind go back. Back to when everything was fine and shiny, everything that happened in this year since happened to somebody else. It was just a story, a winter's tale, an 's it," His mind was beginning to open. "that's it just let go." I laid him down while I spoke. "Tell me about the story Peter, tell me about the witches."

He spoke like a madman, talking about the voices in his head, the voices that were all too real. He told us of the witches that stole his wits and made him change the globe's design, he told us where to find them. One of the witches then appeared.

"What the hell!" Donna said and I shouted in protest as the old hag as she murdered yet another man.

"Now who will be next. Hmm? But one touch, oh I'll stop your frantic hearts! Poor fragile mortals." She said mockingly, her gaze wandering over the three of us. "Who will die first?"

"Well," I said to her. "If you're looking for volunteers."

"Doctor, don't you dare!" I heard Donna shout from behind me, reaching for my coat sleeve. Shakespeare asked if I could stop her, which I was hoping I could.

"No mortal has power over me." The witch stated, not expecting to be proved wrong.

"There's a power in words though, if I can find the right ones, if I can just know you." _The power of a name. _I thought, trying to figure out what race they were.

"None on Earth have knowledge of us." She pointed her finger at me, only inches from my skin and let it hang there.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here. Now think, think, humanoid, female, uses shapes and numbers to channel energy." I said, ransacking my memories for anything similar, when it popped in to my mind. "Aaah, fourteen! That's it, fourteen. The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration. I name you Carrionite!" She screamed as she was transported with a beam of light back to her 'sisters', and I knew there was nothing to stop her from escaping this time.

"Doctor, what did you do?" Donna was still mildly frantic behind me, unsurprisingly.

"The power of a name, that's old magic." I tried to explain simply.

"Magic? You said there's no such thing." Taking the logical approach, it was just Donna's way and it could be very useful at times.

"Yes but this is just science. You chose maths, given the right string of numbers, right equation you could split the atom. But the carrionites chose words instead." I told her.

"Use them for what?" Shakespeare asked, looking to where the creature had been stood.

"The End Of The World." I stated matter-of-factly.


	4. Expelliarmus and Showers

Donna POV

As the day went on, me and the Doctor got ready and left to find the house of the witches, we sent Shakespeare to try and stop the play while we found the youngest sister. When we got to the house, the witch 'named' me and I passed out, so I don't know exactly what happened during that time.

When I woke, the witch was gone and the Doctor was on the floor seemingly damaged. I ran over to check his hearts and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Two hearts mister!" He kept complaining that only one was working and after almost a minute of me thumping different parts of his chest and back, we got his other one to start working. He hopped up and ran towards the door, looking back at where I was still knelt on the floor.

"You coming?" He asked and I couldn't help but roll my eyes before I jumped up.

When we got to the theatre, we ran straight through the stage door to find Shakespeare backstage, complaining that he'd hit his head. We ran out on stage, dragging Shakespeare along with us, and found hundreds of Carrionites flying around the theatre, coming through the newly opened portal.

"Come on, Will! History needs you!Reverse it!" The Doctor said, pulling Shakespeare to the front of the stage. "The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith, the one true genius. The only man clever enough to do it."

"But what words? I have none ready. These Carrionite phrases take such precision!" Shakespeare complained, doubting himself.

"Trust yourself. When you're locked away in your room, the words just come, don't they, like magic. Words of the right sound, the right shape, the right rhythm. Words that last forever. That's what you do, Will. You choose perfect words. Do it. Improvise." The Doctor encouraged the man to come up with something to say and eventually he did, he spoke a sonnet until the last line when he looked to the Doctor for help, then the Doctor looked to me.

"Expelliarmus?!" I shouted at the Doctor, who looked at Shakespeare to repeat the words.

"Good old J.K." We all watched as the witches were drawn back in the portal like a tornado, the scripts being absorbed with them.

Doctor POV

After a good night's sleep and a look through the prop cupboard, I came on to the stage to find Donna saying goodbye to Shakespeare, both laughing.

We were saying our goodbyes when we were interrupted by a couple of actors telling us that 'she' had come, turns out they meant Queen Elizabeth I, who wasn't very pleased with me for some reason or other. Running away from her archers, we managed to get back to the TARDIS without getting shot.

As soon as I got the door closed, I stopped to catch my breath and couldn't help but laugh, just one more person that didn't like me. Donna looked at me with a raised eyebrow, wondering how I could see the humour in the situation.

"What? It's funny!" She rolled her eyes at me and I smirked.

"Fine but what did you do anyway?"

"I don't know! Life of a time-traveller, I haven't done it yet." I said, she might end up bumping in to people that already know her even though she's never met them, and at times like that she would need to understand this.

"How do you do it? Go back and meet all these amazing people and let them go on living their lives, not knowing how brilliant they were. Every time I saw Shakespeare I wanted to bring him to the TARDIS and show him the future where everybody loves him!" Not many would see the irony in that sentence but I did, she didn't.

"Because no-one knows how they'll be remembered. I don't have the right to change that, nobody does." I said, trying to get her to understand it.

"I suppose so."

"You were brilliant by the way, saved the world yet again!" I said, trying to lighten the mood, ineffectively.

"Nah, it was all you and Shakespeare this time! I didn't do anything this time." She pulled out her phone for the first time in almost three days, checking through her messages.

"No Donna, we'd be dead if it wasn't for you and J.K. Rowling, I really couldn't think of anything and we would have been done for!" She smirked at me, then got up from where she was sat.

"I'm going to take a shower, I feel disgusting right now and looking at the state of you, you might want to as well." She said before sauntering off down the corridor toward her bedroom.

I soon followed to head for a shower of my own, she was right, I did look like a mess.


	5. Undeniable Affection

Donna POV

After a nice long shower and preparing for bed, I sat down in the room I had missed for the last couple of nights, the TARDIS was good company and even with the Doctor beside me I couldn't bear the silence.

_Dear Diary,_

_I haven't made an entry for the past two days, we were investigating in Shakespeare's time, we ended up staying in an inn for the past couple nights. It's nice to be back but we've had an eventful time, turns out that witches were trying to take over Earth so the Doctor and I had to try and figure out why they needed Shakespeare. Turns out they were something called Carrionites and they could harness power from words, so they tried to possess the world's greatest wordsmith, still the Doctor saved the day in the end like he always does. He's done something to upset Queen Elizabeth I, well he hasn't yet but he will(time travel gets confusing) in the future. Over the past couple of days I've come to a realization though, it doesn't change anything or even mean anything to anyone besides me, but I've fallen for the Doctor._

_I can't believe I'm admitting it but I have, I told myself when I started travelling with him that we weren't going to be anymore than friends, all he needs right now is a friend and that's what I can be. Not that this will change that, we are still best friends, it's not like I'm going to tell him how I feel anyway, I've always been very good at hiding my true feelings, though it's harder with the Doctor because he can read people. Either way, I won't let him find out, all I want from him is his friendship, the same thing that he wants from me. It's just strange because I never thought that I could fall for this man, no matter how amazing he was or how lovely he seemed, I didn't think I was capable of it. The Doctor has seen me in every way possible, he knows me too well for me to fall in love with him, it's too embarrassing to fall for the one person who has seen you like that. Anyway, it's not like anything is going to happen so I can think whatever I like really._

_Goodnight._

I put it back in the drawer and lied down to go to sleep, revelling in the feeling of warmth it gave me, when the TARDIS started speaking to me. _I missed you too, both of you. It's been too quiet and by the way, he loves you too, he's just not ready to admit it. _I laughed and whispered a 'yeah right' out loud.

Doctor POV

Just before I lied down to sleep, I pulled out the diary from the drawer beside my bed and opened it, ready to fill in the events of the past three days.

_Dear Diary_,

_I met Shakespeare, never had a chance to before now, and he was a lovely chap. He helped me to save Earth from being destroyed by blood-thirsty Carrionites. I also found out that sometime in the future, I do something to displease Queen Elizabeth I although I don't know what yet. Me and Donna had a laugh about it though, once we were back on the TARDIS, I've missed the old girl because I never like to be away from her for too long at a time. Donna spent the whole time dressed in a beautiful gown and she looked amazing but I bet she regretted it after all the running we had to do. I wonder what it'd be like to have a normal life, even for a day, where we could go out together and not end up being chased by aliens. _

_There isn't much else to be said, Donna helped to save the day again, I seem to be far too reliant on her for my liking lately. It's worrying that I need that much from a human, when they are so easy to lose. I'm going to take her to New New York soon, not sure when exactly, but sometime soon. I'm still on my mission to make her accept her importance and it's progressing nicely I think, soon she'll be as big-headed as me._

_Goodnight._

I put it back in the drawer and lied down to go to sleep, comforted by the sound of the TARDIS around me again, I usually struggled to sleep without it. _You're in love with her, aren't you. _I heard the TARDIS say and frowned not quite understanding what she meant, but I couldn't get the thought out of my head until I fell asleep, and I realized who she meant.


End file.
